“People think nowadays that there is no fame in print and we see less creatives putting their heart into press,” laments Fadi Yaish, Regional Executive Creative Director of Impact BBDO Dubai.

 
 Yaish is Jury President of Outdoor Lotus and Press Lotus at ADFEST this year. When asked how he has seen Outdoor transform over the past year, he went on to say, “Outdoor can be anything. It now has no limits of what the medium can be.”

 
Adam Chan, Regional Executive Creative Director of Bonsay Jaden Singapore, says: “Some of the strongest work comes from very niche, local insights. They really dig deep into what makes the local market tick and what the problem is really about to the local person.”

 
If you’re wondering what key aspects of these categories the jury seemed most keen for, we have the lowdown.

 
For Outdoor entries, Jury members wondered about scalability, or whether the implementation actually worked – looking good isn’t enough.

 
In Press, it was especially important to consider the readability of posters. All in all, judges took into consideration each submission as a whole, rather than nitpicking too much on individual details, and worked together to decide whether the entire concept was a failure or success, asking: “Does it work and not just look good?

 
INTERACTIVE & MOBILE
 
We all remember the late 90’s Nokia phones. Their rigid unbreakable exterior was cherished for the game snake and push number texting, but there was much to be desired in terms of advertising via the device.

 
Times have changed. Since then we’ve seen tremendous development in the area of Interactive and Mobile.

 
Both the Mobile and Interactive categories play with cutting edge ideas and technology in order to bring each concept to life. As Kyo Seo says, “Our category is the most leading technologically and we should show the future in our selections”. Seo is Head of Creative Shop Korea at Facebook in Seoul.

 
The jury said advertisers often have difficulty marrying advertising messaging with technology.

 
When it was time to judge the Mobile entries, the judges found themselves asking: “Did Mobile play an important role in promoting the ad’s objective?”

 
Sometimes it was apparent that the ad originated from a different medium and was poorly adapted for Mobile. Other ideas were well developed and brought a new experience to mobile users – and it’s these ideas that will be awarded

 
It’s essential for the clients and ad agencies to work together in ensuring their Mobile and Interactive implementations focus on providing a new exciting experience through technology.

 
 As Yasuharu Sasaki, Executive Creative Director at Dentsu, says: “I say to people, we can use anything as a tool for our solutions. That way, copywriters and art directors can come up with bigger ideas – not just beautifully designed graphics or movies, but new business ideas for clients. But it’s very difficult to get classic creative people to think like that.”

 
- Kyle Towb